Slitherine acquires the Master of Magic franchise

[Asid]

Slitherine acquires the Master of Magic franchise



In a continuous bid to update and modernize popular strategy IPs and bringing them to the 21st century, Slitherine has acquired the full publishing rights to the Master of Magic franchise from Atari.

This is one of the most recognizable names in videogames history. It’s one of the key pillars of turn-based strategy gaming and it has created a genre of its own that is still alive and thriving today.

Master of Magic first released on MS-DOS twenty-five years ago in 1994 and it quickly became one of the most cherished games of its genre with its infinite replayability and the sheer number of customisation options it gave to the players.

“We are looking forward to working on this immensely popular franchise”, said Iain McNeil development director at Slitherine. “We know there is a high level of responsibility when we try and develop sequels or successors to popular IPs. We have proven it is possible to fulfil players expectations with the likes of Panzer Corps when it comes to work on these legendary products”.

Sequels to Close Combat and Fantasy General, both coming this year, are also a testament of Slitherine’s ongoing mission in this space.

“The foundations of what we play today are still traced back to that golden age of gaming. We cannot ignore that, like we cannot ignore that technology has moved on with player’s expectations in other areas such as social integration, multiplayer, narration, ease-of-access and more. It will be a challenge, but we are happy to accept it and try our best to make a game that does justice to the brand”.

[Asid]

Caster of Magic for Windows is coming soon.
1 March 2021



A new edition of Caster of Magic is coming soon.

Caster of Magic for WIndows is an upgraded edition of Caster of Magic which allows you to run it natively on Windows for the first time, as well as supporting higher screen resolutions.

It also contains countless improvements for Caster of Magic, including new spells, game options, UI and AI improvements. It is the ultimate edition of Master of Magic, brought by the fans to the modern era.

NEW FEATURES IN CASTER OF MAGIC FOR WINDOWS

- Runs natively in Windows
- Freely resizeable game window, not locked to any specific aspect ratio
- Up to 13 enemy wizards
- Variable map size
- Additional game modes/options
- 21 new spells
- Improved UI and production queue system
- Improved AI
- Seamless, procedurally generated terrain
- Improved item creation, new item powers
- More diplomacy messages which now all depend on the AI's personality

We're currently looking for beta testers to help us test Caster of Magic for Windows, so if you're willing to help us out you can sign up [link=https://www.slitherine.com/beta/master-of-magic-caster-of-magic-for-windows]here[/link].

About the developer:

Caster of Magic started out as a mod, championed by Seravy and building on top of the already popular community patch. Caster of Magic has been a fan favorite of the Master of Magic community and we are pleased to be able to work with Seravy to officially integrate Caster of Magic, giving him the recognition he deserves.


When the game releases, you'll be able to get it here.

[Asid]

Master of Magic: Development Diary 1 - June 2021
1 June 2021


Master of Magic: Development Diary 1 - June 2021



Welcome to the first of our Development Diaries for Master of Magic. Seeing as this one is the first in our new series of Dev Diaries, we decided it would be best to cover everything that has been shown previously. We’ll also be adding some new details for those who have been following along.

Who is MuHa?



We’re an indie studio based in Poland. Our previous two games are called Thea: The Awakening, and Thea 2: The Shattering and they are best described as: gritty, dark, fantasy survival games set within a post-apocalyptic world. They are inhabited by a combination of classical fantasy critters and humans with an abundance of mythical and folklore influences.

So while Master of Magic is a very different game at its core, we certainly have experience with the 4x and strategy genres. Our design ideology is simple: we try to make games that we’d want to play ourselves and we do our best to communicate with our fans and thus make the best games we can.



The old and the new



Our design philosophy is to attempt to recreate the mechanics and gameplay of MoM as faithfully as we can, while also making an awesome game that will attract new fans.

So, with that in mind, here is a list of things we already have that you may recognise from the original:

• All of the wizards from the original MoM, with a modern makeover from our talented artist. We hope you will recognise all of your favourites after 30 years.   
• All of the champions and heroes from the original return, with a makeover similar to but perhaps less dramatic than the wizards, with new 2D and 3D models, as well as a new or improved backstory.   
• All of the races and their units painstakingly recreated with their original statistics and all their original features. This will be our baseline and we hope to minimize balance changes unless they are really necessary.   
• All of the spells and skills from the original. Similarly to races and units, this will be our baseline for balance.   
• All of the original traits that were formerly known as “retorts”.   
• All of MoM’s basic events and possibly some new additional ones. We’re even including the option to turn them off as it was in the original.   
• Arcanus and Myrror as playable planes.   
• All building types will be included.   
• The Mana management system makes a return, with a modern look but the original mechanics.   
• Battles will take place on a tactical map and not the strategic map, like in the original.   
• Familiars - they’re back, and we have an extra one for those who choose mixed magic books.

This list is also not an exhaustive list of features, but it should give you an idea of where we’re going with it. Classic gameplay, with a modern look, beautiful new art and surgical balance changes with player feedback at the heart of the process.
 


Arcanus and Myrror races: each race has its own flavour and gives different bonuses that can influence your playthrough.



Lizardmen spearmen and Orc swordsmen, with new 2D graphics and 3D models but faithful stats.


Sprites

Areas so far that warranted some changes


   

• We felt Hexes offered superior tactical and strategic gameplay and we also have a lot more experience with them over old-school squares.
• New A.I. with difficulty settings. The original A.I. was best described as primitive, which makes sense for its time, we have much better tools to create A.I. now.
• Quality of Life improvements: Production queues, more MP to start, modern pathfinding that doesn't split your group unless you specifically split it and many more QoL improvements have been made.   
• Auto-combat function that will show you a range of possible outcomes and gives you the option to either auto-resolve, retreat or fight manually.   
• Extensive modding tools will be included.   
• Modern tooltips which explain various mechanics and units were added.   
• Fog of war has been added, as is typical with more modern games.

The construction manager now includes a production queue.


Auto-resolve battles.
 

Coming in our Dev Diary next month...



The wizards! Who stayed unchanged and who got a makeover? If that’s a question that’s been on your mind, we’ll answer it in the next dev diary.

New Discord Channel

If you’d like to discuss this dev diary or anything else about the game, please join us on our new official Master of Magic Discord server here.

You can also wishlist Master of Magic on Steam here.

[Asid]

Master of Magic Open Beta - Changelog 01.02.2023 and 02.02.2023
Thu, 2 February 2023




Hello everyone,

We are releasing an Open Beta for the new update of Master of Magic; see below the instructions on how to have access to it:

1.   To Access the 'Open Beta' Branch
2.   Right-Click on Master of Magic in your list of games in the Steam Library
3.   Select "Properties"
4.   In the menu that appears, select the BETAS tab on the left side
5.   Click the drop-down list and you will see "beta - Open Beta" as an option. Select it.
6.   You can now close the Preferences Menu
7.   Steam should now automatically update your game to the Open Beta Branch. If it does not start automatically, click the Update button.


If you have any feedback please let us know it, here below there is the changelog, have fun.


Changelog 01.02.2023

FIX Crash when opening Special Actions menu with Guardian Spirit in the group, while not standing on a magic node
FIX Construction screen not being able to display more than 6 skills for units
FIX Ice Storm evaluation script - set spell less valuable if spellcaster isn't at war with target
FIX Corrupted save file will no longer crash the game when opening the Load/Save window. Instead, corrupted saves will not be listed
FIX Some units considered as target even though they were invalid as a result of other, valid target units sharing unit type and health status (ie when one unit is enchanted with flying)
FIX Chaos Rift and Call Lightning - those spells weren't tested for dmg. Instead assumed there were always hits. Now corrected
Fix RequireMinBooks() - parameter "minimum" is now in use
FIX Viewing another Wizard's city containing summoning circle now shows the circle
FIX Word of Recall - now the spell doesn't work for ships unless they have a flight enchantment
FIX Undead resurrection failing automatically if the group has 9 units already
FIX Great Wasting - no more targeting sea hexes
FIX Night Shade dispel spawn correction
FIX blocked access to Research screen from Magic screen if there are no spells left to research
FIX Spell of Mastery taking -57 turns - 1 will now be displayed when the value is negative
FIX Wind Walking and Invisibility will no longer get dispelled after combat
FIX Modified scripts in the event editor to check for heroes that are also in the graveyard (modders please check your events, to make sure you are using a correct script now, this refers to searching for hero by name)
FIX Resetting enchantments after raise dead in combat
FIX Implemented a safety measure to not dispel your own enchantments
FIX Removing Endurance no longer gives movement
FIX Dispel casting by hero - now extra mana will add to spell strength
FIX Roland the Paladin and Torin the Chosen now have Super Might
FIX Endurance on item now gives the correct move bonus +1
FIX Foresters Guild now supplies the correct food bonus +2
FIX Race names for additional objects (ie battle buildings) are no longer hardcoded (this should fix some modding issues)
FIX Units with modded 2d art not generated for starting groups
FIX Rebels - there was a problem when 10 pop x 0.2 unrest created 1 rebel. Now it is corrected
FIX Neutrals summoning - they were casting summons on the wrong side
FIX Steam cannon - cannon now properly needs dwarf mine in town
MOD Dispel - now the spell can be used on your own unit with Confusion and Possession
MOD Research progress - there was problem when research slider was set to 0 but the player received research from other sources
MOD Select Wizard screen (made space for up to 3 traits with dynamically adjusting description space, paging for wizards grid)
MOD Resummoning Torin will allow him to have his past XP
MOD Tweaks to representation of construction progress on Town Screen and Town Manager
MOD Darkness, True Light, Havenly Light, Eternal Night - is not blocked by magic immunity any more
MOD Call Lightning - Bless and Righteousness no longer protect from the spell
MOD Poison - priority set to 0
MOD Immolation dmg - does not do excess dmg from one figure to another
MOD Spell Blast - cannot target Spell of Return
MOD Spell Lock - AI evaluation will return 0 if fighting against neutral units
MOD Hotkeys Q, O, I and N will now open the special actions menu, pressing the desired key again will start the task (if it is possible) - this change will standardise how the hotkeys work, as before, you could one click building roads, but not melding with nodes etc.
MOD Ghoul Poison dmg - ghouls poison attack will now also create undead
MOD Regeneration - unit with regeneration, after reviving more irreversible dmg, then normal dmg, will stay dead after battle
MOD Nature Wrath - spell attacks the owner if they have any death/ chaos books
MOD Great Wasting - spell will no longer target hexes in spell owner’s territory
MOD a unit that was dealt more irreversible damage than normal damage during battle will not be regenerated after a winning battle even if that unit had the regeneration skill
ADD Remappable hotkeys
ADD Multi hex road building
ADD Repeat unit construction toggle on Town Screen and Town Manager
ADD Second variant of "save is different" marker to show when saves are marginally different as addition to the exclamation marker shown currently on any difference
ADD Highlighting the caster when choosing a casting unit on the battlefield (helps if there are multiple casters that look the same)
ADD Notification when AI casts a spell on player wizard
ADD Notification when AI casts a global spell
ADD Show notification when AI cast a spell on player's group
ADD Notification when the AI casts a spell on player's town
ADD Army marker now showing number of turns until road building/purifying action is complete
ADD Arrow keys will switch between towns on TownScreen
ADD Confirmation popup when switching to another spell when one is already in progress on the spellbook screen
ADD Images for Great Unsummoning and Death Wish
ADD Feedback popup when player uses disenchanting spells
ADD popup after casting Great Unsummoning or Death Wish containing information about the quantity of units destroyed


Patch notes 02.02.2023

FIX crash resulting from modified location list iterator during location visibility scripts processing
FIX spell casting timer on hud not being updated correctly when loading the game when the spell ready notification was not on the 1st page of notifications
FIX crash when a source of damage tried writing information to battle log after the battle was concluded
ADD battle log entry for fortress bolt attacks